Thirty Frames Per Second

Thirty Frames Per Second: The Visionary Art of the Music Video
Steven Reiss and Neil Feinman (Harry N.Abrams, New York, 2000)

 The music video has to be densely textured so that it can hold up over repeated viewings. It has to be edgy enough to be noticed, but palatable enough to satisfy the often divergent demands of the performer, the record company and the public (A.K.A. the lowest common demoninator).

A plot-driven narrative usually gets boring...knowing that their music vidoes are meant to be seen repeatedly,, most video directors prefer a denser, more abstract style to telling a simple story.

For Jim Farber (‘The 100 Top Music Videos’, Rolling Stone October 14 1993), ‘Video directors reprove what good film directors knew all along – that visuals can also be music. When excuted with élan, an edit becomes a backbeat, a crane shot a solo, a close-up a hook.’